Ancient Egypt keeps our interest peeked

I've decided to dive right in with Maestro's studies of Sonlight Core 6, this year, and try to read all the books before he gets to them. I'm falling a little behind now, but I won't miss reading any of them.

I started ahead on Mara, Daughter of the Nile during the summer break. I really liked this story as it had the suspense held throughout. Sadly, though, Maestro hasn't enjoyed this so much. I think we'll try again another time, as a read-aloud. The vocabulary is most likely the issue, and I should have been prepared to use this as a read-aloud from the outset, as recommended on the Sonlight forum.

Another title we're now reading aloud is The Golden Goblet. This is more to his liking. We'd been reading some interesting facts within the story (both stories, actually) that has drawn us to the internet for more information.

We've learnt that lotus blossoms were quite common in Egypt. The blue lotus is regularly referred to in the story of Mara, Daughter of the Nile. This is considered a sacred flower, symbolising rebirth, and the variety that is depicted in Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs. More information, with pictures, were on this webpage.

I don't know if we'll ever find any lotus roots to try, but I do think they look quite curious. The Golden Goblet describes the root as having a strong anise flavour. There seem to be quite a few recipes online, but here is a site that had great pictures and explanation of the plant: Lotus Root.

Another part of the lotus plant that's mentioned as edible are the

".. cone shaped fruits ... There were fully twenty-five seeds studding the top of it, cracked, and the almondlike, sweet white nuts inside freed from the bitter green leaf that separated their two lobes .. "

pg 115, The Golden Goblet

I managed to find more information and pictures on Wikipedia.  We're now very keen to see if we can find some lotus roots and seeds to try, hopefully by visiting some markets.

Moving away from food and to books, here are some finds that may be of interest to others:

Atlas of Ancient Egypt is part of a series that I was able to acquire from ebay not long ago. We really like the maps and timeline information in this book.

Similarly, we found a Cultural Atlas of Ancient Egypt in our library.

A Test of Time by David M. Rohl has also been recommended to us. This will be very interesting, once I can find a library which has it, as it will coincide with our biblical studies on the lives of Jacob and Joseph very well (although this is probably aimed more at an adult audience).

To top off our studies in this era, we're looking forward to the Tutankhamun exhibition coming to Melbourne in April.  This will be a family event, and I should start thinking about when we'd like to go now.  Tickets are already available online.

I wonder if the ancient kings knew they'd be changing songs to tell their stories in our time? Here's a series of You Tube videos put out by 'history teachers'. Time to have a bit of a giggle with these: